The invention relates to a process for the shrinking and structure development of textile webs, particularly knitted goods, webs of textured polyester yarns, and the like, and also to apparatus for performing the process.
For the production of the optimum output of goods it is essential that the goods, either before or after final finishing, be shrunk as much as possible, in order to avoid a subsequent contraction during further processing or handling, and especially to achieve, in the case of textured goods, an optimum structural and volume development. Both processes are closely related in the case of textured fabric webs.
When, for example, circular knitted goods made from textured polyester yarns are washed, shrunk and thermofixed, it was customary in the prior art always to proceed so that the knitted goods were first washed in a special washing machine, namely, one equipped with a suction screen, then the goods were subjected to a shrinking operation in a holding chamber, such as a loop suspension chamber, a boiling apparatus, or a boiling or steaming apparatus with a wrinkling section, after which wringing, drying and thermofixation took place in special apparatus.
In these known methods, in which the thermofixation step is always performed on flat-spread webs, and the drying step is always carried out on flat-spread webs in hot air, it is not possible to attain a sufficiently high moisture content of the treatment medium economically in the drying or fixing chambers.